Secusmart’s technology meets NATO standards for “NATO restricted” communications—the equivalent of sensitive but unclassified communications or “for official use only” classification in the US government and military. The German government, however, has certified the technology for classified communications. The company has used its “Made in Germany” nature to its advantage in recent post-Snowden revelations marketing, proclaiming on its website, “If you’re looking for the right response to recent spying affairs and wire-tapping scandals, you’ve come to the right place.”

The acquisition is part of BlackBerry CEO John Chen’s effort to reposition BlackBerry as a company focused on customers with hardcore security concerns, such as the government, military, and financial services sector companies that remain its most loyal customers. And by acquiring Secusmart, BlackBerry will likely be more able to convince customers that it is taking a course independent from the influences of the US government and NSA, despite the company’s long relationship with both.

Just to be clear here, the NSA hacked Merkel's Android phone supplied by her political party, not her government issue z10.

I'm not sure this is particularly useful for your average schmuck since the technology at the moment uses the SD card slot, something few would give up. Nor do I think the crypto would work without some sort of MDM.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not being negative, but rather I think this is more for enterprise than your average user. (I'm writing this on a Z10, and mind you not a free corporate issued phone, so I speak with my wallet.)

If BlackBerry wants to do me a security favor, give me OpenVPN.

Now I supposw BlackBerry could set up a service like the Blackphone, though they would have to find some Navy SEALs.

People laugh when I tell them I still use (and like) Blackberry. When the alternatives are "I promise I won't spy on you" Google and "No, you have to use the phone the way we tell you to" Apple, I really don't understand why more people don't choose blackberry.

This is the first thing Blackberry has done in a long time that actually improves their chances of getting business from me again someday.

Blackberry has had so many opportunities that at some stage I wonder whether they've deliberately set themselves up to fail rather than these being simply an example of having bad luck on their part. What they need is a set of great developer tools, a roadmap for Blackberry OS and their hardware line, a focus on delivering quality first class experience applications for Facebook, Linked In, Twitter etc. rather than waiting for said company to write the application. If they raise the bar they have an opportunity to carve our a profitable niche but I have a feeling that although what they've done is a good step in the right direction that the good move will be offset by 5 really bad moves (see the rumoured new phone they're working on which has failure written all over it).

"At a well-known investment firm in New York City, something strange is happening: Mobile app performance issues and privacy concerns have sparked a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) revolt, and now many employees are asking for their corporate BlackBerry back.

-------------------------------------"Now that the nasty is out in the open there's no reason to mince my words any more.

The majority of devices running Google's Android operating system are susceptible to hacks that allow malicious apps to bypass a key security sandbox so they can steal user credentials, read e-mail, and access payment histories and other sensitive data, researchers have warned.

Not the majority. Basically all."-------------------------------------Apple Confirms “Backdoors”; Downplays Their SeverityPosted on July 23, 2014 by Jonathan ZdziarskiApple responded to allegations of hidden services running on iOS devices with this knowledge base article. In it, they outlined three of the big services that I outlined in my talk. So again, Apple has, in a traditional sense, admitted to having backdoors on the device specifically for their own use.====================================================

So, Fbook(available for BB10 btw), Twitter and Linked (which is also available for BB10) (AKA platforms for the personal info gathering and Ad dissemination).

are now the driving force behind a mobile device's popularity.

Disclaimer: former owner of an Android phone. Currently own Z10 and love it.

People laugh when I tell them I still use (and like) Blackberry. When the alternatives are "I promise I won't spy on you" Google and "No, you have to use the phone the way we tell you to" Apple, I really don't understand why more people don't choose blackberry.

While most people want some level of security on their phone, it is generally second to features and usability. Unfortunalty they were years late at getting all around features and usability on par with the competition and still do not have even a shadow of the 3rd party development happening that Android or Apple does, MS has been improving in that area. Unfortunately the Android comparability layer is a blessing and a curse, it helps get apps to bridge the gap but also probably leads to less native ones.

I do wonder how MS is doing right now, plus what they've got planned for WP9. Making WP consumer first left holes in terms of what they offer, and its clear BB isn't standing still. If there's a serious fight between them, that'll be interesting.

And by acquiring Secusmart, BlackBerry will likely be more able to convince customers that it is taking a course independent from the influences of the US government and NSA, despite the company’s long relationship with both.

Blackberry has allowed foreign governments in Saudi Arabia and India to penetrate their 'secure' BIS network in order to spy on users.

No person with even a remote understanding of security will be ever be interested in this.

As a BB fanboy I feel betrayed by them and welcome their impending demise.

Except on the newer phones, BIS isn't used. The deal is they allowed BBM to be penetrated. But BBM was never secure anyway. Even in India and Saudi Arabia, BES is still secure. There is no way to hand over keys that you don't have. (As a reminder, the Mumbai terrorists attacks were coordinated via BBM.)

The real problem with (cough cough) lesser phones like Android and IOS is because they can be rooted, they are never really secure IF (and it is a big if) law enforcement has physical access to the device.

And Apple has a proven track record of being incapable of writing a lock screen that can't be hacked. There is still a Siri based hack that Apple won't patch. The advice is don't have Siri enabled on a locked phone.

People laugh when I tell them I still use (and like) Blackberry. When the alternatives are "I promise I won't spy on you" Google and "No, you have to use the phone the way we tell you to" Apple, I really don't understand why more people don't choose blackberry.

While most people want some level of security on their phone, it is generally second to features and usability. Unfortunalty they were years late at getting all around features and usability on par with the competition and still do not have even a shadow of the 3rd party development happening that Android or Apple does, MS has been improving in that area. Unfortunately the Android comparability layer is a blessing and a curse, it helps get apps to bridge the gap but also probably leads to less native ones.

If you don't need Google Play services, bb10 runs Android just fine. While it would be nice for native apps, running Android apps is better than not running the app at all.

I have run some very complicated apps on my Z10. Delorme Inreach and Sirius for example. Bb10 Android is very good.

And Apple has a proven track record of being incapable of writing a lock screen that can't be hacked. There is still a Siri based hack that Apple won't patch. The advice is don't have Siri enabled on a locked phone.

Blackberry has allowed foreign governments in Saudi Arabia and India to penetrate their 'secure' BIS network in order to spy on users.

No person with even a remote understanding of security will be ever be interested in this.

As a BB fanboy I feel betrayed by them and welcome their impending demise.

Except on the newer phones, BIS isn't used. The deal is they allowed BBM to be penetrated. But BBM was never secure anyway. Even in India and Saudi Arabia, BES is still secure. There is no way to hand over keys that you don't have. (As a reminder, the Mumbai terrorists attacks were coordinated via BBM.)

"At a well-known investment firm in New York City, something strange is happening: Mobile app performance issues and privacy concerns have sparked a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) revolt, and now many employees are asking for their corporate BlackBerry back.

Disclaimer: former owner of an Android phone. Currently own Z10 and love it.

Um, oh yeah, well I have several hundred non-anonymous people I work with who aren't clamoring for their Blackberry's back. And this smells like a Chief Information Officer's wet dream: to have control back of the employee's devices. and MDM on an iPhone isn't a battery hog, it's sandboxed to each individual app and is built into the iOS security.

Disclaimer: happily turned in my BB Bold 3 years ago before my company had even officially started the BYOD program and was a guinea pig. On my 4th iPhone; currently on my 5S and I love it.

Blackberry has allowed foreign governments in Saudi Arabia and India to penetrate their 'secure' BIS network in order to spy on users.

No person with even a remote understanding of security will be ever be interested in this.

As a BB fanboy I feel betrayed by them and welcome their impending demise.

That is still at worst similar to Apple and Google. Also note that this didn't affect corporate Blackberrys. A properly setup corporate Blackberry will use the company's own servers instead of Blackberry's.

The security on the phone, or even over the connection, has not been the major concern for a long time. If the phone isn't secured properly, or the user is careful enough, there are plenty of ways to get the information without attacking the security systems in place. This smacks of hardening the already secure links, and obscuring the fact that the weak links are weak.

I remember years ago following somebody through a public area as they shouted into a hardened phone because the reception was flaky - and when we pointed out the absurdity of it their response was "But the phone is secure"!

1. Blackberry is largely irrelevant. Yes, improving security is always a good thing and important to what's left of the users. But, in the great scheme of things, it hardly regesters on scales. No matter what BB fanbois think.

Will it make BB more secure as a platform? Yes. More relevant? No

2. Proprietary vs Open Source security. In other words, secure with a few loop-holes vs a joke. Open Source, by definition, exists to be changed/built-upon/hacked. If you deploy meaningful security measures, it's no longer open source, as any effective measure is proprietary by definition.

As a result, why bother with reporting open source security issues when they're open sourced themselves.

3. Tightly controlled system (hardware, OS, supporting infrastrcture), will always be, by definition, more secured (and effective) than anything where any of the three elements is controlled by someone else (Windows, Android).

I understand why a lot of consumers aren't interested in the new BB10 devices. When apple went OS X in 2001 it wasn't until 2011 that they started really being recognized as best in market (i.e. "best windows laptop of 2011").

Refresh cycles are different with cell phone; plus people don't like being told they made a 2-3 year mistake on their hardware. And admittedly the BB10 phones released to date are sub-par for the price compared to other specifications on the market.

This next generation of phones will be interesting from the consumer perspective; and taking a wait and see approach might have been good for the first generation of phones. But as we get into the 2nd and 3rd generation of hardware revisions more people will start to bite.

The big question here is why corporations aren't implementing BES? For companies that could afford it they use illogical statements like: "we're not sure about the future of the company". If someone has a product that gives you a competitive advantage; does it matter if that advantage is only for 6 months? 1 year?

I understand why a lot of consumers aren't interested in the new BB10 devices. When apple went OS X in 2001 it wasn't until 2011 that they started really being recognized as best in market (i.e. "best windows laptop of 2011").

The big question here is why corporations aren't implementing BES? For companies that could afford it they use illogical statements like: "we're not sure about the future of the company". If someone has a product that gives you a competitive advantage; does it matter if that advantage is only for 6 months? 1 year?

People laugh when I tell them I still use (and like) Blackberry. When the alternatives are "I promise I won't spy on you" Google and "No, you have to use the phone the way we tell you to" Apple, I really don't understand why more people don't choose blackberry.

Because, fortunately or not, for soccer mom #10044 and highschool kid #56855 having instagram ad whatever's-cool-this-month-bird is vastly more important than security. It also doesn't help that bb10, at launch, was not well received at all. Oh, yeah, and blackberry has no consumer presence whatsoever, as evidenced by the fact that people laugh at you for using a blackberry in 2014

I think anyone touting this as a great step forward for Blackberry and privacy is missing one key important piece. BB has bought this previously foreign product, which means that now it is under the purview of a U.S. corporation, and thus, is going to get compromised over a barrel six ways to Sunday by the U.S. government. If I was Germany, I would have never allowed this transaction, as you have just now compromised yourself.

I think anyone touting this as a great step forward for Blackberry and privacy is missing one key important piece. BB has bought this previously foreign product, which means that now it is under the purview of a U.S. corporation, and thus, is going to get compromised over a barrel six ways to Sunday by the U.S. government. If I was Germany, I would have never allowed this transaction, as you have just now compromised yourself.

I'm a BB supporter and I too wonder whether BB is going to compromise the security of this product by giving up info to the US Gov.

BB is the only mobile OS not owned by a U.S. company (or China? if they have one), so I hope they won't give the NSA the keys, but Chen (the CEO) is Hong Kong Chinese/American and has a long relationship with the U.S. government.

Legally, they could probably resist U.S. pressure to give up relevant info., but I wonder about their large contracts with the US government and Chen's connections inside that government. I'm really torn about this because it highlights the problem BB faces as it goes forward. The US Gov. is a big customer, but they're also the biggest potential security risk to most of your other customers, who would naturally question the arrangement. This is also the problem for anyone else (Apple, Google, MS) who does a lot of business with the US Gov. How do you guarantee the security of your system from spying by the NSA when the US Gov. is one of your biggest customers?

I think Germany might block the sale because of this. I think they'd be wise to do so.

"At a well-known investment firm in New York City, something strange is happening: Mobile app performance issues and privacy concerns have sparked a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) revolt, and now many employees are asking for their corporate BlackBerry back.

-------------------------------------"Now that the nasty is out in the open there's no reason to mince my words any more.

The majority of devices running Google's Android operating system are susceptible to hacks that allow malicious apps to bypass a key security sandbox so they can steal user credentials, read e-mail, and access payment histories and other sensitive data, researchers have warned.

Not the majority. Basically all."-------------------------------------Apple Confirms “Backdoors”; Downplays Their SeverityPosted on July 23, 2014 by Jonathan ZdziarskiApple responded to allegations of hidden services running on iOS devices with this knowledge base article. In it, they outlined three of the big services that I outlined in my talk. So again, Apple has, in a traditional sense, admitted to having backdoors on the device specifically for their own use.====================================================

So, Fbook(available for BB10 btw), Twitter and Linked (which is also available for BB10) (AKA platforms for the personal info gathering and Ad dissemination).

are now the driving force behind a mobile device's popularity.

Disclaimer: former owner of an Android phone. Currently own Z10 and love it.

Nobody reporting issues on a phone because it sits at 1% marketshare and shrinking doesn't equal "secure". That and that bs you mentioned about android is already patched before it was disclosed. Nor will that apple issue mean much either.

Sean Gallagher / Sean is Ars Technica's IT Editor. A former Navy officer, systems administrator, and network systems integrator with 20 years of IT journalism experience, he lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.